CALGARY - Representatives from the U.S. Pentagon were in Fort McMurray this week as part of an effort to get former American soldiers out of their combat gear and into careers in the Canadian oilsands.

The officials — part of a Pentagon program aimed at helping military personnel transition back to civilian life — were guests of the Alberta government, which has targeted veterans as one possible solution for the province’s labour-starved energy industry.

Deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, who is also the provincial government’s liaison to the armed forces, said the “Helmets to Hard Hats” program aims to recruit not just former Canadian soldiers, but U.S. and British soldiers as well. He said while the government would like to see every job in Alberta taken by a Canadian, right now, too many jobs are going unfilled.

“In the province of Alberta right now, there are approximately 70,000 temporary foreign workers. Why? Because those jobs were posted and Canadians were either not available or not interested in filling those positions,” Lukaszuk said. “I think it’s perfectly sound to ask ourselves the question, are we going to target any particular groups to fill these positions? And I think in a province like ours, where we pride ourselves on being very welcoming to military ... it would make sense to extend the opportunity of employment to our allied forces who are returning from their deployments.”

Proponents of the initiative say many of the skills gained in the military — such as heavy equipment operation and construction — are the exact skills that oilsands employers are clamouring for. They also point to notoriously high rates of unemployment for returning veterans. U.S. Bureau of Labour statistics show unemployment among veterans was 9.9 per cent in 2012, well above the U.S. national unemployment rate of 7.8 per cent.

“We think it’s a very interesting idea. There’s no doubt there are parts of the United States where the unemployment rate is higher than we want it to be,” said Peter Kujawinski, the U.S. Consul General in Calgary. “We think in general U.S. workers would be a good fit for this area. We definitely see ourselves in a supporting role on this.”

Lukaszuk said in addition to formally reaching out to the U.S. military, he has also met with the British military command at CFB Suffield near Medicine Hat and posted advertisements in U.K. military magazines. On the Canadian front, he said he is working closely with Alberta’s military bases as well as military family support services.

Earlier this week, Lukaszuk met with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who was also in Alberta to tour the oilsands. Colorado is home to Fort Carson, one of the largest military bases in the United States.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Hickenlooper told the Herald, adding he looks forward to working with Alberta on the initiative. “We’re going to pursue that aggressively. Starting in a few weeks, we’re actually going to have a non-stop daily flight from Fort McMurray to Denver, and that’s a perfect opportunity to start recruiting some of our veterans to great jobs.”

Lukaszuk acknowledged the program could expose the government to critics who don’t like the idea of targeting non-Canadians for lucrative oilsands jobs. But he said before hiring any temporary foreign workers, companies must prove they’ve first done everything possible to hire domestically.

“Yes, some will claim these workers are taking jobs away from Canadians. But I assure you that any and all jobs continue to be made available first to Canadians,” he said.

The Alberta government isn’t the only one eager to sign up new recruits for the oilsands. Last summer, the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation posted a number of opportunities in northern Alberta on VetJobs, an online job board for veterans of the U.S. armed forces. And last month, a Denver-based headhunter met with close to a dozen Alberta-based companies interested in his strategies for attracting and hiring demobilized military personnel.

The Alberta government’s most recent labour market estimate suggests the province will have a shortage of 114,000 workers by 2021.

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Pentagon officials tour oilsands as part of effort to recruit veterans to jobs

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